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Text Appearing Before Image:CULTURE. the queen has wax plates 011 the underside of the abdomen and waxglands beneath them, yet both are less developed than in the workersand are never used. The wax plates of the worker overlying thesecreting glands are well shown in fig. 9. those of the queen and ofthe related genera, Bombus and Melipona, being shown for comparison.During wax secretion, that is, when combs are being built or honeycells sealed over, a high temperature is maintained in the hive, andmany workers may be seen to have small scales of wax protrudingfrom between the segments of the abdomen on the underside. Themolds or plates, eight in number, in which the scales appear are con-cealed by the overlapping of the abdominal segments, but whenexposed to view (fig. 9, a) are seen to be five-sided depressions linedwith a transparent membrane. The wax glands themselves are beneaththis membrane, and through it the wax comes in a liquid form. As thescales harden they are pushed out by the addition of wax beneath.

Text Appearing After Image:Fig. ■Wax disks of social bees: a, Apis mellifera worker; b. A.melliferaqueen; c, Meliponaworker;d, Bombus -worker—all enlarged. (From Insect Life.) The bees pluck them out with neat pincers (fig. 7, a and b) formed bythe articulation of the hind tibiae with the adjacent tarsal joints, passthem forward to the mandibles, and mold them into the shape of hex-agonal cells, meanwhile warming and moistening them with the secre-tions of the head glands to render the wax more pliable. Wax is fashioned by the workers into cells of various sizes and shapes,according to the use to be made of them. The most regular in shapeand size are the cells designed for brood (fig. 4). These combs in whichworkers are bred show nearly 29 cells on a square inch of surface, thecombs being seven-eighths inch thick and the cells generally quiteregular hexagons in outline. Drone cells are larger, there being but 18of them to the square inch of surface, and the comb is 1^ inches thick. COMB BUILDING. 27 The cel

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